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Saturday, 27 December 2008

Dinner @ Pho Hoa, The Curve

With the 'rents out for a wedding dinner tonight at the PJ Hilton and Mum too ill this last week to make us any dinner, I decided that we go try Pho Hoa, the Vietnamese place at The Curve that I've been meaning to try but had no reason to (till now).

Traffic to the area was terrible tonight because they had closed the main road for some reason. Luckily I had the sense to take the other road in (the one the shuttle bus uses) and parked at Tesco (for a reason).

Pho Hoa is one of those hidden places that you probably wouldn't notice until you try to find it. I also found out later that it's an American franchise. I don't know whether to be disgusted or not.

Took the indoor seating and checked out the menu: the pho is RM11.99 for a regular-sized bowl and RM15.99 for a large - admittedly, a little expensive for what essentially is a street dish in Vietnam.

I ordered a Phở Tái (steak pho) for myself and the sibling ordered a Phở Tái, Nạm, Gân Sách (pho with steak, flank, tendon and tripe) off The Adventurer's Choice section.

Anyhoo, good to know that even if you want the garnish, it comes on the side so you could choose how much and when to add it into your beefy-goodness of a broth. You could also order your pho without garnish if you (like me) have issues with coriander, spring onion and the rest of that green stuff - it says so right there in the menu. The only thing I didn't rule out was bean sprouts :P(still need the fibre, mah)

My garnish-less pho

I ordered a Vietnamese drip coffee with milk and ice (RM4.90 - regardless of the combination of either black and/or sweet and/or cold) to wash it all down and the sibling went with his favourite soy bean milk.

While I wait for the Vietnamese drip coffee (with milk and ice) to be done...Actually, it WAS already done. It's only half so that I could easily pour it into the half-iced cup (not pictured) without making too much of a mess.

When I first saw the bowls, I honestly thought I was never gonna be able to finish mine because the bowl was so big. But with the noodles about a third the width of kuey teow or hor fun, I managed to finish it without too much trouble. Easier for me to finish it without the extra "stuff" to sort out.

The beefy broth was not bad, the portions - well, you get what you paid for lah - plenty of meat in the bowl, beef slices werequite tender... My bro was having fun spicing his up with the chilli we got. I had to get another saucer of chilli for myself so that he could pour what's left into his bowl. Mine was a bit sour cos I added more lime juice than I did the chilli.

I was filled enough that there was no room to order side dishes or anything like that. Bill came out to be about RM20 something per person.

After dinner, stopped at Daiso and bought a few more RM5 items there (new plastic measuring cup, cooling gel packs, spectacle repair kit and mini screwdriver set) before going back to Tesco, bought the RM30 Beedle (to also validate the parking and collect points with the Club Card, haha). As we were leaving, we heard Gurmit Singh doing his guest appearance as Phua Chu Kang at the Courts Megastore across the street. Didn't stay too long lah, rather go home at that point.